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New Zealand social scientist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Janet Rhona Stephenson (born 1955) is a New Zealand social scientist, and is a research professor at the University of Otago, where she is Director of the Centre for Sustainability. Her research focuses on climate change and societal transition.
Janet Stephenson | |
---|---|
Born | 1955 |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Otago, Massey University |
Theses | |
Doctoral advisor | Claire Freeman, Ian W.G. Smith, Michael Patrick Joseph Reilly |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of Otago |
Stephenson's father was farmer Gordon Stephenson, founder of the QEII National Trust.[1] The family moved to New Zealand from the UK in 1958 when Janet Stephenson was a young child.[1] Stephenson completed a Master's thesis titled The planning framework for Maori land at Massey University.[2] She followed this with a PhD at the University of Otago in 2005, studying cultural values and the links between society, values and sustainability outcomes.[3] From 2002 Stephenson taught in the geography department at Otago, before joining the Centre for Sustainability in 2008.[4] She has been Director of the Centre for Sustainability since 2011.[4] Stephenson was appointed associate professor in 2018 and research professor in 2021.[5][6]
Stephenson has been a member of the Advisory Board of INCLUDE, a Norwegian research centre for socially inclusive energy transitions.[4] She is also involved in the Built Environment and Active Transport to School research programme, and the BRANZ Transition to Zero Carbon Programme.[4] She is also a involved with the Coastal People: Southern Skies Centre of Research Excellence and both the Deep South National Science Challenge and the Science for Technological Innovation science challenge.[4][7][8]
Stephenson's research focuses on climate change, and how to achieve societal transition to a sustainable future. She works in multidisciplinary teams, and has developed cultural frameworks as a new theoretical way to explore societal change. She has commented on issues such as New Zealand's electricity infrastructure, and how the economy could be redesigned .[9][10][11][12][13]
Stephenson has received research funding from the MBIE Endeavour fund, the Norwegian Research Council, and was a principal investigator on a Marsden grants in 2008, with Henrik Moller, titled Tirohia He Huarahi: Co-management of environment by indigenous people.[14][4]
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